"And yet, with a little more material, we may prove that they are
not insurmountable," said Holmes. "I fancy that among your
extensive archives, Watson, you may find some which were nearly
as obscure. Meanwhile, we shall put the case aside until more
accurate data are available, and devote the rest of our morning
to the pursuit of neolithic man."

I may have commented upon my friend's power of mental detachment,
but never have I wondered at it more than upon that spring
morning in Cornwall when for two hours he discoursed upon celts,
arrowheads, and shards, as lightly as if no sinister mystery were
waiting for his solution. It was not until we had returned in
the afternoon to our cottage that we found a visitor awaiting us,
who soon brought our minds back to the matter in hand. Neither
of us needed to be told who that visitor was. The huge body, the
craggy and deeply seamed face with the fierce eyes and hawk-like
nose, the grizzled hair which nearly brushed our cottage ceiling,
the beard--golden at the fringes and white near the lips, save
for the nicotine stain from his perpetual cigar--all these were
as well known in London as in Africa, and could only be
associated with the tremendous personality of Dr. Leon Sterndale,
the great lion-hunter and explorer.

We had heard of his presence in the district and had once or
twice caught sight of his tall figure upon the moorland paths.
He made no advances to us, however, nor would we have dreamed of
doing so to him, as it was well known that it was his love of
seclusion which caused him to spend the greater part of the
intervals between his journeys in a small bungalow buried in the
lonely wood of Beauchamp Arriance. Here, amid his books and his
maps, he lived an absolutely lonely life, attending to his own
simple wants and paying little apparent heed to the affairs of
his neighbours. It was a surprise to me, therefore, to hear him
asking Holmes in an eager voice whether he had made any advance
in his reconstruction of this mysterious episode. "The county
police are utterly at fault," said he, "but perhaps your wider
experience has suggested some conceivable explanation. My only
claim to being taken into your confidence is that during my many
residences here I have come to know this family of Tregennis very
well--indeed, upon my Cornish mother's side I could call them
cousins--and their strange fate has naturally been a great shock
to me. I may tell you that I had got as far as Plymouth upon my
way to Africa, but the news reached me this morning, and I came
straight back again to help in the inquiry."

Holmes raised his eyebrows.

"Did you lose your boat through it?"

"I will take the next."

"Dear me! that is friendship indeed."

"I tell you they were relatives."

"Quite so--cousins of your mother. Was your baggage aboard the
ship?"

"Some of it, but the main part at the hotel."

"I see. But surely this event could not have found its way into
the Plymouth morning papers."